A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Bulletin #8: State of the Press

Reportedly written by “a prominent Kathmandu journalist” who is not identified by name, such is the state of press freedom in Nepal.

According to Deshanter, journalists detained so far include Bishnu Nisturi, general secretary, FNJ, Narayan Dutta Kandel, central member FNJ, Suresh Chandra Pokhrel of Channel Nepal and Suman Shrestha (Pokhrel and Shrestha were arrested in Human Rights and Peace Society protest). According to another report in Himal Khabarpatrika, four dailies of Kailali district Seti Samachar, Dhangadi Post, Sudhur Sandesh and Nepal Times resumed publications from February 7th. They had been shut down on February 1st.

Three dailies from Mahendranagar Farwest Times, Abhiyan and Chure Times had resumed publications on February 3rd. The papers have not written anything against the royal proclamation or on the Maoist activities since. Khem Bhandari of Abhiyan had written an editorial entitled “King becomes strong if people are strong” (a saying by king Prithivi Narayan Shah) after which he was detained for 30 hours. The Farwest Times had been published poetry in its editorial slot almost every day after February 1st.

Press Review

Deshanter (Feb 13) weekly had a front page story asking “Would democracy be restored within 100 days"? The story was an analysis on the remarks by the American Ambassador James Moriarty on Feb 11. The ambassador said the king had asked for three months to let his government perform.

He added, we will wait and observe the government activities (before taking a decision on aid). The paper also reported detention of J.P. Gupta and had a separate story on what the parties were doing in terms of planning opposition against the February 1 takeover by the king.

Deshanter editorialized on press freedoms, even though it stopped short of demanding and end to the restrictions. It said, “Censorship during emergency is not new the world over."adding, that “agreement and disagreement were also as essential for democracy". The paper also carried an op-ed piece that touched upon the reactions by foreign governments and added that a long term resolution of the Maoist insurgency was not possible by sidelining the parties.

Sunday’s Chalphal weekly reported the work of parties towards making a new strategy and also wrote about the leaders/ party workers in detention or house arrest. It editorialized on press freedoms, attempting to impress on the rulers reasons why the press needed the freedoms that are currently curtailed.

Page five of the paper provided a timeline of what happened in Kathmandu after the royal proclamation. Conspicuous by its absence was the commentary by various politicians of the UML, something that had largely regular in the paper before the February 1 takeover.

Himal Khabarpatrika (Feb 12-26, 2005) came with an editorial notice explaining that some articles could be “imbalanced” because of the “special censorship” (meaning, not only that done by editors themselves in accordance with a government notice issued earlier). The 72-page fortnightly had about 28 “holes” marking spots where the censors had deleted the text. Some stories had a few lines missing, while others had lost almost everything.

The one-page article by Kanak Mani Dixit, which attempted to report the international reactions to the royal proclamation, had 10 holes where the comments about need to restore democracy and free political leaders from detention were deleted. The censors did not even spare a story on Cambodia, which had lost a paragraph.

The censors also seemed to have looked at the profiles of the new ministers quite closely-the story on the foreign minister did not have a headline, and chunks of text were missing from the write-ups on others members of the cabinet.

Among the dailies, Rajdhani, had a page one story on a press statement by the Nepali Congress party announcing non-violent protests for the restoration of democracy to begin on February 18, Democracy Day (Falgun 7th). It was on Falgun 7th that the then banned political parties had launched the movement for the restoration of democracy in 1990. The report said that the UML and the NC (Democratic) were also planning protests.

Sanghu weekly on February 14th reported that the parliamentary parties were not going to side with the Maoists, and also had a report on UML’s efforts to dialogue and reach agreement with other parties (on opposing the royal move). The stories essentially summarized what had happened the week before, and also included the comments made by the American Ambassador to Nepal.

The paper reported on an appeal by the UML calling on all parties to come together to tackle the crisis facing Nepal, and also called on the Maoists to immediately stop attacking political workers and to review their past policy of attacking party workers. Sanghu editorialized on infectious diseases that could spread during the hot dry months.

Not all newspapers have hinted of opposition to the royal move. Among the supporters include, Jana Bhawana (February 14) which had a headline asking “who were those spreading rumors among the foreigners” and reported the stories that had appeared in Chinese papers after the royal takeover and explained the positive changes taken place after February 1.

The paper also had a report on leaders of different parties and civil society preparing a collective statement in support of the royal move. The paper also carried a long list of government officials who it said were supporters of the Nepali Congress and UML. Its editorial was fully support of the royal move, and warned ministers to guard against making promises and concentrate on rectifying what had gone wrong in the past.

INSN is the International Nepal Solidarity Network, which has activists in over a dozen countries around the world who are working to bring democracy to Nepal. Visit their website for regular updates related to the Nepal crisis.